Movies - The Mouse That Roared

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	Movies - The Mouse That Roared

The Mouse that Roared is a 1955 novel by Irish writer Leonard Wibberley that launched a series of satirical books about a fictional European nation called the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.

Tiny (3 miles by 5 miles) Grand Fenwick borders Switzerland and France in the Alps, and proudly retains a pre-industrial economy, dependent almost entirely on making Pinot Grand Fenwick wine. Wibberly places Grand Fenwick in a series of absurd situations, where it goes up against superpowers and wins. In The Mouse that Roared it declares war on the United States after US-produced "Grand Enwick" threatens to undermine their economy. Expecting to be dealt a crushing defeat (and then rebuild itself through the largess which the United States bestows on its vanquished enemies) the tiny Duchy instead defeats the United States, purely by accident, by capturing the Q-bomb, a prototype Doomsday device that could destroy the world if triggered.

In this and other novels, Wibberley goes beyond the merely comic, using the situations to make commentary about modern politics and world situations.

Other media

The Mouse That Roared was made into a 1959 film starring Peter Sellers in three different roles (including the Duchess), Jean Seberg as his love interest, and co-starring William Hartnell as Will Buckley.

This film echoes Dr. Strangelove both in Sellers' multiple roles and its satirization of Cold War concepts such as the Marshall Plan and paranoia. A sequel was made in 1963, The Mouse on the Moon, with Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Bernard Cribbins and Terry-Thomas, instead of Sellers.

The Novel was also adapted as a stage play, which has become a favorite of amateur school productions.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Mouse That Roared ]

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